Ramblin Wreck Cruiser

3 hours ago, 81Zoomie said:

Highly recommend you do a small patch test with any new sunscreen AND expose it to the sun for a bit to test for allergies.  I had a rather unpleasant allergic reaction to an all natural zinc oxide based reef safe sunscreen.  Two weeks of red itchy bumpy skin, one of which was on a cruise, was no fun.

Unfortunately, I also have the same reaction to zinc oxide sunscreens. 😔

51 minutes ago, simong said:

what are people doing about covid testing whom are flying from Vancouver BC to USA

We are on this cruise in August. Our flight from Vancouver was to leave around 1:00pm. That was going to be tight if we had to get tested that morning. We were getting so stressed about the Covid test, as well as a tight connection in Minneapolis, that we changed our flight to one out of Seattle the following day. We booked a bus from Vancouver to Seattle the morning we disembark and will have a relaxing afternoon in Seattle before flying direct to Atlanta the next morning. No testing required! In doing so, we were refunded 10,000 frequent flyer points each and a small amount of taxes we had paid as well. The added costs of the bus ticket and hotel for the night are well worth it for the peace of mind.

Thank you both for your replies. I will check with my travel agent.

Sorry to hijack this thread,  but when are you notified about which Fairbanks hotel you will be in? We are flying in a day before our cruise-tour starts in August, and it would be nice to book the same hotel for our first night.

For what it’s worth, the only reason I clicked on this thread was because of your clever thread title. I, too, am getting tired of all the pandemic threads full of “expert” opinions. But I also knew that it wouldn’t take long before someone corrected you. I was not disappointed.

17 hours ago, ace1zoe2 said:

I believe both Symphony & Oasis we’re chartered by Chick-fil-a for their annual owner/operators and corporate meeting. They boarded yesterday and are at CoCo Cay today. 

This is correct. Our daughter works at corporate and is on board the Oasis. 

I just checked on our 12/8 Harmony cruise and was able to book some of the shows. I wasn’t expecting to be able to until sometime in August. Thanks to the OP for reminding me to check!

I love stand-up comedy. But I really dislike when comedians opt for the “easy” laugh via crude jokes. It is just lazy, in my opinion. I love Brian Regan and Jim Gaffigan! They are consistently funny without resorting to base humor. Whenever I hear a comedian relying on jokes about sex or bodily functions, I tend to write them off as sophomoric and not funny. Too bad that this is the type of comedian that RCCL employs.

1 hour ago, Agavegirl1 said:

On Oasis now.  Our cruise director announces available reservation slots during shows he hosts and his Morning Show.   I have heard of Ice Show reservations still available day of for the 10:30 showing on two occasions.  Do you have the Royal App?  I have used it for reservations but had the best luck on a high, forward deck like in the solarium.  The app can lock up at times.  At the comedy show we attended there were only a few empty seats for walk ins.  Try for a later show for better options.

Thank you! I will look into the Royal App. I appreciate your help.

Thank you!

My husband and I are sailing with our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter on the Oasis next month. We tried booking our shows very soon after booking became available, but we missed out on booking the comedy show and the ice show, as they were already sold out. I remember a couple of years ago on the Oasis that we were able to book some “sold-out” shows the first day onboard. I seem to recall that we went to some venue as soon as we boarded and waited in a line to book these shows. Does anyone know if this is still the case, and if so, where this venue is where they do the booking? 

Thanks in advance!

29 minutes ago, cruiseguy1016 said:

 

Have you "transferred" your membership from Celebrity? It doesn't just happen. You can do it on the X website. Your Crown & Anchor number will be the same as your Captain's Club number.

It “just happened” for us. We turned Elite on Celebrity in December. Now when I look at my upcoming Oasis cruise on the Royal site, it shows us as Diamond. I didn’t do anything special. Is there something else I should be doing? 

I just looked at our June 2, 2018 Equinox cruise and noticed these sale prices as well. We already have the Classic package included. I wonder if the upgrade to Premium would be the difference in these sale prices, which is $7.50 plus gratuities. Or would it still be $10 plus gratuities? Has anyone tried to do this yet?

Thank you for your detailed review. it was very helpful, as we have two upcoming cruises booked on the Equinox in 2018. I am a little confused about your comment regarding the classic drink package though. You indicated that any drink above the $9.00 limit was charged in full. I had heard that Celebrity had recently changed that policy and was only charging the difference. Can you or anyone else comment on that?

Yes it can:D

Thank you! :)

Just curious, can onboard credit be used to pay the daily gratuities?

The included beverage package can be found if you look at the Order History. It took me awhile to find Order History on the new site and I can't remember where it is but both the beverage packe & the unlimited internet which are our perks are lshowing.

My perks do not show up on Order History. I have the beverage package and OBC as my perks. I can see the OBC at the top of the page once I navigate through many pages to "Manage my Reservation" and then "Explore Cruise Planner." But when I open the Order History, there is nothing listed. I am not overly worried, because I have never once seen my perks listed, even on the old site. I'm sure it has something to do with booking through a travel agency, but others have said they see their perks when booking through a travel agent, so I don't know. Maybe it is just the specific agency I use that is the problem. It is one of the large online agencies and I have not had any other issues with them. It seems like such a simple thing to expect to see my perks listed, but in light of all the other problems with their website, I guess I should not be surprised.

I tried this one time and it was OK, but not great. It doesn't have the stability of a foot stool, so you are not able to completely relax your legs, but it is better than nothing for those of us who have short legs.

If you get off the ship before 10 am there should be plenty of chairs under the palm trees. We have always been able to do that as we do not lounge for a very long time and the clam shell would be a waste of money. I think you can rent them once you get there if you cannot find chairs under the trees.

Have fun!!

janymac:cool:

Thank you! :D

We will be at GSC next week and I was wondering if there are any shady areas with loungers, perhaps under some palm trees? Is it necessary to rent clamshells in order to have shade?

I was on the 5/15 sailing from BCN and I would estimate that 1/2 the passengers were Chinese. That would be more like 2,000. If I did my research correctly, this was an incentive trip awarded to cosmetic salespeople and yes, we experienced quite a bit of rudeness. It took the form of crowding, line-cutting, people reaching around you to fill their water bottles, rushing the elevators (in one instance, a crowd of them rushed around 2 people in wheelchairs waiting for an elevator and pushed the down button, leaving them waiting for the next one), crowding the aisles and other shenanigans. On top of that, Cantonese is the only language I'm familiar with that must be shouted so the noise level was extremely high. Most of it was harmless, if annoying. I did witness a fellow passenger get her drink spilled all over her dress as one of them ran through the casino and bumped her arm. At the time, she was complaining to me about some of them taking photographs of her teenage daughter in her bathing suit at the pool despite being asked not to. It all just needlessly raised tensions on what should have been a relaxing trip.

 

There were places where you could avoid them. Since English was not generally spoken, they avoided the shows. They were not in or at the bars either for the most part. They dominated the MDR's and buffet but reportedly avoided the specialty restaurants. I was a little surprised they hadn't taken over the casino. I found that by going down the stairs from the buffet (one of the specialty restaurants) at breakfast, it was a quiet retreat.

 

We didn't let it ruin our vacation but it was distracting, to say the least. I hope others are experiencing less of it than we did. I have no idea how many more of the group there are but there was a long line of them waiting to embark as we were disembarking so the next sailing may have been as bad as ours.

BamaVol, we were on the same sailing as you. I would have estimated the number of Chinese to be about 2/3 to 3/4, but maybe it just seemed that way. I agree that there was quite a bit of rudeness. There was no concept of personal space, no concept of waiting in line and apparently no concept of weight load, as there would be throngs of people shoving each other to cram onto the elevators (I'm not even exaggerating. I was crushed, body-to-body, to the back of the elevator one time, before my sister cried "NO MORE!") You are right that they didn't attend shows and didn't hog the poolside chairs, so that was a plus. We had no problems getting into the main dining rooms, but we heard that it was impossible to get into the Chinese ones. The amusing thing to us was that they were perpetually taking pictures of themselves! They would take selfies, semi-selfies, glamour shots, group shots, you name it--literally for hours. I'm not sure they actually experienced the cruise, but they sure documented it! And I agree with their volume. My brother-in-law at one point said, "They must all be hard-of-hearing!" Lol. But, in the end, it did not impact our cruise at all, other than giving us something to chuckle about. After all, we probably annoyed/amused them with our customs, dialects, and habits. All-in-all, a great cruise!

We were on this cruise with you and I'm so happy you had a positive experience. We saw many babies and young children on this cruise and all seemed to be exceptionally well-behaved. Every family deserves to have a good time on a cruise, no matter the age of the children.

My only issue on this cruise was seeing a baby in the hot tub for a good long while, in spite of the signs stating that this was a health risk. Yuck! I mean, even without the signs, you have to know that this is not acceptable, right? The pool butlers are of no help because they don't want to anger any customers, and I admit to being very non-confrontational. I just made a point of staying out of the hot tubs!

My daughter and I are particularly susceptible to motion sickness. On the ship, usually a Bonine tablet and a ginger pill per day will be sufficient. However, on unusually rough boat excursions, we will still get quite seasick. We have found that if we take a regular Dramamine in this case, we will be much better in about 30 minutes. So now, before we take a boat excursion, we will take a regular Dramamine ins addition to our ginger pill and we will be fine. The sleepiness will not usually be a problem as long as we are active. Later in the afternoon, however, we might take a nice nap!

OP, you could be my daughter. You are a lovely young lady. Let me assure you that you will not be denied entry to the main dining room. You are dressed appropriately and your footwear will not be an issue. However, as a mother to a twenty-something who does not concern herself with the opinions of others, let me just say that you can do so much better with your choice of shoes. I realize you have a foot issue, and I am sympathetic because I, too, have foot pain which requires me to wear less-than-fashionable shoes. But this particular shoe does you no favors. There are plenty of cute, comfortable shoes out there that would look so much more appropriate with your cute sundresses. Having said that, I hope you enjoy your cruise and don't worry about the opinions of us older cruisers!

Thanks for those pictures. These rooms look amazing!

I have two more questions. For my next cruise on the Constellation, the cabins available are 3116-3130 or 3142 and 3144. We are traveling with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and want 2 cabins together. I know that 3142 and 3144 are not connecting rooms, but I read somewhere that (maybe on another ship) there was some noise in the middle of the night from the cleaning of the men's room above. Has anyone experienced this?

Also, does anyone have a picture of what the connecting door would look like in cabins 3116-3130? I was just wondering if it would reduce the size of anything else in the cabin. Having a connecting door would not necessarily be a bad thing for us since we would be traveling with family members.

Any thoughts about these options would be appreciated!